Q: 4.4BSD on VAX?
t...@ccphys.nsu.nsk.su
I need to install a newer version of Unix on our VAX at this university.
I prefer BSD. Something called 4.4BSD-Lite is available on anonymous ftp
(many sites). I have got the partial documentation and am somewhat
impressed. But the readme file in vax directory states that its VM
system has not been ported to VAX architecture yet and the directory exists
only as a help for the person who dares to port it (as I understood).
I suggest that it should not be very hard for a person familiar with
BSD internals and with VAX architecture. However I am neither a former nor
a latter one.
So the question: has someone already ported it to VAX? I would be very
happy if I could have it. We have here an old VAX-11/780 with
UDA-50-compatible controllers (maybe I made you laugh but I hope that we
are not the only ones in the world that use such hardware).
If it's no chance, do I understand correctly that the most recent Unix
capable of using our hardware is 4.3BSD Net2? One more obstacle: this one
is also available on many sites, but everywhere different. I fear that
it is somehow cut or hacked in many places. It would be sad if I'd be
ftp'ing for days to get an inappropriate version that I could not
use. Where should I search for the most "official" distribution (I think,
some machine at Berkeley)?
With great respect to BSD-ists,
Vladimir.
J. R. Valverde (4423)
NetBSD is based on BSD4.4 and is ported to VAX. It runs on 11/780+AD50
so that's what you need. Here's the README file in the /src/sys/arch/vax
directory:
It doesn't seem to be a finished, fully functional port,
but is a start. And you can monitor the development process and
get a full port when it is finished.
-------------------
$NetBSD: README,v 1.5 1994/11/25 19:08:04 ragge Exp $
Some information and status of VAX port:
It now runs multi-user on 11/750 with not to much problem.
There are still lots of bugs, and some unimplemented things.
Things that needs to be done:
- Repair pmap, something maps wrong sometimes.
- Fix doublemapping of kernel stack in user space.
- Set right security permissions of everything (Usch!)
- Setup autoconfiguring, and make it work.
- Write boot stuff.
- Fix DELUA support (currently broken). Probably easy.
Currently supported hardware:
VAX 11/750 with at least 3MB memory.
UDA50 (or compatible) disc controller.
MSCP-device for UDA50 (RA81 or something).
We are developing on 11/750's with Massbuss disks, because of the ease to share
disks between computers, but have root filesystem on an RA81 on an UDA50.
In the future we have the possibility to try it out on almost all VAX cpu
types, ka730, ka780, ka420, ka630, ka650, ka8200, ka8600 and ka8800. Phew :)
I have only included relevant files from old berkeley VAX distributions.
If you want to look at other files get them from nearest ftp site with
an 4.4BSD distribution, or from ftp.luth.se:/pub/unix/4_4bsd_l directory.
----
Wasn't this just what you wanted? VAX-11/780, UDA-50 or compatible,
etc...
So, get NetBSD4.4
I got my copy from
I don't remember quite well, but seem to remember it was
in /pub/comp/systems/unix/NetBSD or something similar.
I grabbed the distribution from the "current" directory.
It comes in one single file, tar.Z, so it is handy to get (not
several days), and you only need to be careful to have enough
free disk space.
BTW, note that 4.4BSD-Lite is available on CD-ROM. And that
it is of no use at all: it does not contain any bottstrappable or
complete system. It is a bare bones release. To run a full BSD4.4
system you need a derivative like FreeBSD or NetBSD.
FreeBSD is only available for the i386 as far as I know.
NetBSD does the job. And does it very well: It's being
developed for i386, amiga, sparc, mac68k, vax, sun2, pmax, sparc,
hp300, and pc532...
Wow! Isn't it? It also comes with full tools, man pages,
some games, X11R5, programs, and documentation.
Please, note too that I haven't installed it on any of
the architectures mentioned (maybe one day I'll be able to buy
myself a computer or find a spare one).
Just contact the authors (see above).
jr